Temporary automatic machine coin store

ABSTRACT

A temporary automatic machine coin store includes a gear-tooth belt disposed between two tooth-gear blocks, namely, a driving tooth-gear block and a return tooth-gear block. A plurality of blades are attached to one belt. The width of the blades is equal to the maximal diameter of the coin to be inserted. The coin store assembly is disposed inside a vertically elongate housing. The tooth-gear blocks are vertically aligned. The upper end of the housing has a window for the coins to enter. The coins drop one by one upon the dihedral defined by each pair of blades which occupy at that time the upper end position within the device.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to an automatic machine coin store, i.e.,a store for machines capable upon insertion of a number of coins ofproviding a product or service, such store being able to house suchcoins for the time being before ultimately sending the same to themachine's collector box, or returning the same to the user depending onwhether or not the machine supplies the product or service at issue.

Modern automatic machines are in addition to an electronic coin selectorprovided with a programme capable of counting the inserted coins toestablish a user "credit" in order to determine refund or changerequired upon provision of the product or service by the machine, and asappropriate in order to return the full sum of money inserted in themachine in the event that the latter is unable, having run out of theproduct or otherwise, to suitably meet the request being made to it.

In such events, for instance when the product runs out, the money isreturned by the refunders provided for change, wherein the coins worthmost are not retained inasmuch as these need never be returned, and thusafter a longer or shorter time interval in this position, the machineshall be unable to return any monies unless the product is firstrestocked or the relevant fault is put right.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The temporary coin store, subject of the invention, fully solves theseproblems, inasmuch as in any of the above events it refunds to each userexactly the same coins inserted by the latter, and thus the faultyposition can be endlessly maintained without this meaning that the usersrisk losing their money.

More specifically, and in order to achieve the above objects, the storeis made up of a gear-tooth belt, disposed between two end cogwheels, adriving cogwheel and a return cogwheel, attached to the belt including anumber of blades, whose width varies according to the maximum diameterof the coins to be inserted, the whole set being disposed within avertically elongate housing wherein the cogwheels are in a verticalalignment. A window is provided at the upper end of the housing foraccess of the coins, which drop one by one upon the dihedral constitutedby the pair of blades which occupy the upper end position within thedevice at that time.

The driving cogwheel or block is fitted with a motor-reducer mounted onthe outside of the housing, the motor-reducer being an impulse motorsuch that in each of its impulses, a blade moves forward in regard tothe upper window for coin insertion, the motor being capable of turningin either direction.

Finally, and to supplement the above structure, the lower end of thehousing has two opposite outlet windows in order that when the beltturns in a given direction, the coins held between the blades will dropoutside the housing through one of such windows and through the otherwhen they turn in the opposite direction.

Naturally, with this structure the device can gradually store all thecoins inserted by the one user and in the event of the machine providingthe product or service requested, will subsequently turn to empty thecoins towards the collector box, whilst in the event of the machinebeing unable to meet the request made, for any reason, the belt willturn in the opposite direction and evacuation will be through the windowconnected to the coin return set.

The number of blades in the belt will obviously suffice for the maximumnumber of coins that could foreseeably be inserted to be housed for thetime being.

In another more simplified embodiment of the invention, the gear-toothbelt together with the number of blades attached thereto is replaced bya simple rotatory partition attached to the output shaft of themotor-reducer, acting as a platform to collect the group of coins andwhich will unload toward either outlet window depending on the directionof rotation of the motor, specifically depending upon whether the coinsare to be sent to the machine's collector box or to be returned to theuser.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In order to provide a fuller description and contribute to the completeunderstanding of the characteristics of this invention, a set ofdrawings is attached to the specification which, while purelyillustrative and not fully comprehensive, shows the following:

FIG. 1 is a front elevation view of a temporary automatic machine coinstore constructed in accordance with the subject of the presentinvention;

FIG. 2 is a section view taken along line A-B of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is an exploded perspective view of one of the blades forming partof the temporary coin store, with the duly opposed gear-tooth belt towhich it is attached; and

FIG. 4 is a cross-section view of the assembly taken along line C-D ofFIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a view similar to that of FIG. 1, but for a differentembodiment wherein the store is considerably simplified.

FIG. 6 is a view similar to that of FIG. 2, but showing the embodimentof FIG. 5; and.

FIG. 7 is a perspective detail of the control blade, with the relevantpair of photodiodes controlling the movement of the motor-reducer in theembodiment of FIGS. 5 and 6.

DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The figures show the temporary automatic machine coin store which isprovided with two cogwheels or tooth-gear blocks (1) and (2) betweenwhich a corresponding gear-tooth belt (3) is disposed, blocks (1) and(2) remaining within an imaginary vertical plane and one of them, namelythe top block, being associated with a motor-reducer group (4) whichprovide the required movement to the gear-tooth belt (3), which is inturn fitted with a number of blades (5) which therebetween definehorizontal spacings (6) where respective coins can be accommodated andretained.

The blade-carrier belt is disposed within a housing (7) which isprimarily rectangular in shape, being vertically elongate, but with theupper and lower ends semi-circularly rounded, the upper end area havinga window (8) through which the coins drop one by one to the dihedrals(9) defined by the blades (5) as they move past this upper end area ofthe housing, whereas at the bottom there are two outlet windows (10) and(11) for the coins to be evacuated, one of them preferably fitted with adeflection partition (12). One of the outlet windows (10) opens into amachine collector box (10a) and another window (11) opens into a coinrefund channel (11a).

A motor 4a working with the motor-reducer group (4) is an impulse motorwhich is also able to turn in either direction such that when themachine user inserts a coin therein, the motor shall turn a given numberof impulses, as appropriate for the upper dihedral (9), constituted by apair of adjacent blades (5) to be replaced by the next naturally inorder for the various coins inserted by the user to take up thesuperposed spaces (6) defined by the blades, which blades (5) willobviously be dimensionally suited to accommodate any coin size.

The position of the blades (5) is controlled by a pair of photodiodes(16) duly mounted upon a support (16a) mounted to the housing (7). Theblades (5) are at one of their lateral edges provided with a pair ofnotches (18) within which the photodiodes play, as is specifically shownin FIG. 3, such that the beam of light of photodiodes (16) is brokenwhen the photodiodes are crossed by each blade (5).

Once the user of the machine has inserted all the coins, themotor-reducer will turn in either direction in order for the coins to beejected from the temporary store through the window (10) or the window(11) depending on whether or not the machine has provided the product orservice at issue, and hence depending upon whether the coins must besent to the collector box in the machine or be returned to the user.

Finally, it only remains to be said that in order to suitably fix theblades (5) to the belt (3) at a right angle to the latter, each blade(5) is provided with clips (13) at its front corners for attachment tothe actual teeth (14) on the belt, as specifically shown in FIG. 4. Theblades (5) are also each provided with a small projection (15) at one ofits free corners, which in the practical embodiment of the figure iscircular in shape, but could also be shaped otherwise projections 15 aredesigned to ensure that a minimum space exists between blades, as shownin FIG. 2.

In another preferred embodiment shown in FIGS. 5 to 7, the store can besubstantially simplified, specifically eliminating the gear-tooth belt(3) and the blades (5) attached thereto, and the return block (2),mounting a blade or rotatory partition (19) directly upon an outputshaft (11) of the motor-reducer, its spread being equal to the width ofthe housing (7) such that when horizontal it provides a sole vessel (6')to collect the coins inserted through the upper window (8), such that itmay in this position retain all the coins inserted by a given user inexpectation of the machine providing the product, and the motor-reducergroup (4) will in due course turn in either direction in order for thesole vessel (6') to empty towards the evacuation window (10 ) or towardswindow (11), as above the, such motor-reducer group (4) is controlledalso, as above, by a pair of photodiodes (16) which are in this caseactivated by a blade (20) which is similar to one of the blades (5) inthe above case, as to the edge acting upon the pair of photodiodes (16).

Given that in this case as the number of blades (5) are not provided,there are no means to provide for lower guidance of the coins towardsthe windows (10) and (11), a dihedral fixed partition (21) has beenprovided at this area meeting such function.

As above, and upon unloading the coins in either direction, themotor-reducer group (4) will put the vessel (6') retaining the coinsback in place, defining a full turn in order for the partition (19) totake up a considerably horizontal position and for the blade (20) topoint down from the same.

We feel that the device has now been sufficiently described for anyexpert in the art to have grasped the full scope of the invention andthe advantages it offers.

The materials, shape, size and layout of the elements may be alteredprovided that this entails no modification of the essential features ofthe invention.

The terms used to describe the invention herein should be taken to havea broad rather than a restrictive meaning.

I claim:
 1. A temporary automatic machine coin store, comprising avertically elongate and substantially rectangular housing withsemi-cylindrically rounded ends; two tooth-gear blocks positioned withinsaid housing upon an imaginary vertical middle plane; a motor-reducergroup including a drive motor, said motor-reducing group being mountedoutside said housing, one of said tooth-gear blocks being a drivingblock connected to said motor-reducer group to be operated thereby andanother of said tooth-gear blocks being a return block vertically spacedfrom said driving block; a gear-tooth belt mounted between saidtooth-gear block and being rotatable thereby, said belt being providedwith a plurality of blades attached thereto, said blades extending atright angles to said belt at all times and defining therebetweenspacings for accommodating coins inserted into said housing, saidhousing having at an upper end region thereof an entry window forinsertion of coins by a user of the machine coin store so that as saidbelt with said blades are rotated by said motor-reducer group and saidtooth-gear blocks, two adjacent uppermost blades which are positioned ata time below said entry window, form a dihedral into which the coinsinserted through said entry window drop, and two opposed outlet windowsformed in a bottom region of the housing for the coins to be ejectedfrom said housing, said drive motor turning said belt in two oppositedirections so as to selectively move said belt to one of said outletwindows depending on whether or not a machine provides the user with aproduct or service requested so as to send the coins to a collector boxor to channel the coins back to the user.
 2. A temporary automaticmachine coin store according to claim 1, wherein the number of saidblades is sufficient to provide a number of said spacings in accordancewith the maximum number of coins to be inserted by each user; andfurther comprising means for fixing each blade to said belt, said meansincluding a pair of clips mounted at two corners of each blade at a sidethereof facing said belt, said belt having belt cogs, said clips beinglocked at said cogs, each blade having at one of outer corners thereof aprojection forming a spacing abutment for said blade and limiting amaximal proximity thereof.
 3. A temporary automatic machine coin storeaccording to claim 1, and further comprising a pair of photodiodes forcontrolling positions of said blades, said photodiodes being mounted insaid housing such that a respective blade breaks a beam of light of saidphotodiodes when said blade crosses said photodiodes upon rotation ofsaid belt.